Monday, March 23, 2015

Disneyland and Missing Aaron Carter!

Hey you guys!

So as I promised, a real post! Wow! Great job! Pat on the back! :P

My posts are a lot less scheduled than I would like them to be, but that's because our life is not really consistent! So to avoid posting boring things, like what I had for dinner and which television show I watched 11 episodes of today, I normally just don't post anything...

Patrick and I left for the Anaheim area around 1am on Sunday morning. This is always our routine so that we can beat traffic, get to the area and have breakfast, and hit the park for a while.

Because Patrick has work in Pasadena this week, I not only got to go with him, but in our free time we can head to the park (which is about two hours away in traffic, so we will probably only be going to the park on 3/22, 3/26 for a dinner with Patrick's boss and his wife, and 3/28 after we check out of the hotel and before we head home). So since we couldn't check in for the hotel super early and we wanted to miss the daytime traffic trying to get here, we headed to the park for a few hours before we made our way to the hotel!

It was the perfect day for Disneyland, seriously! It was overcast and a little chilly (for Californians-- I, the Michigander accustomed to 40 degree weather right about now, walked around in yoga capris and a muscle T and I was completely fine... even warm enough at one point to have to put my hair up) which meant that not a lot of people were in either of the parks. In addition, it was also a Sunday which is an unpopular weekend day. The end result was that we basically walked on to any of the rides/attractions we tried to go on!

I'm not sure if you can tell, but the roof on the castle is made of "diamonds," part of the park's special decorations in honor of its 60TH ANNIVERSARY-- The Diamond Anniversary! I hope they keep the roof up-- it really is beautiful.

The first thing we did after shopping around was head over to meet Anna and Elsa. Even though Patrick is sick of Frozen (aren't we all?), we really did have to have the experience. Because of their popularity, Anna and Elsa have been moved to DCA (Disney California Adventure) and you must get a FastPass to go see them.

For those who don't know, when you get a FastPass you are basically reserving your spot in line for a later time. You get a ticket that tells when you can come back, preventing you from having to stand in line for hours. This is true of most Disney rides, but sometimes the rides are so popular that your FastPass won't be until really late at night, which sometimes makes the entire notion inconvenient and not worth the hassle. It also means that you are put on a schedule. If you're hungry at 6:30pm but your FastPass is for 6:45pm, you'll have to choose between dinner and going on the ride you've waited all day for. Patrick normally feels that they're more trouble than they're worth-- and I would have to agree.

In the past, Anna and Elsa were in Disneyland. When Frozen first came out and they were introduced to the park, the line to see the girls was literally hours long-- before the attraction even opened. Disney got smart about it after a few months and introduced FastPasses for the attraction.

It would seem that because the girls were very, very recently moved to DCA, not too many people knew that they were there. So even though we didn't get into the park right when it opened and we went shopping for about 30 minutes before we even got to the FastPass stand, we still got Anna and Elsa FastPasses for only about 25 minutes from the time we got them. Not bad at ALL!

We met Anna and Elsa, and I have to say it was an experience. You normally don't get to meet two face characters at the same time. For example, we've met Baymax and Hiro in the past, but only Hiro speaks to you because he is the face character. Therefore, talking to two of them at the same time is a little overwhelming! Patrick and I both agreed that we much preferred Anna over Elsa (personality-wise). Maybe Elsa was still feeling a little under the weather! Although, she is socially awkward from spending so many years isolated from everyone, so that could also be the case.

I had realized that I'd never taken a photo here, so here we go.

Next, we did a little bit more browsing in the shops and then we made our way to a couple of rides-- Jungle Cruise (which I'd never been on before), Haunted Mansion, and Small World. We waited no more than 2 or 3 minutes to board these rides, all of which normally have crazy long lines! This is why we love crappy weather in Disneyland-- the people stay home and the park is less busy. If there hadn't been a cheerleading competition in the area and all of the cheerleaders hadn't been in the park (I literally mean hundreds of cheerleaders), the park would have been even more glorious!

Jungle Cruise was actually really fantastic. I loved it, and there are very few rides in the parks that I will go on. The jokes (as old as the ride itself) were hilarious and cheesy and our boat's captain was dorky and fabulous. I'm so glad I finally got to experience it. Next time I'll have to see it when it's all decked out for Christmas!

Heading over to Jungle Cruise in Adventureland

The following seven photos are of The Jungle Cruise ride:

Patrick was excited because we got "his" boat. Can you see it?

Guests walking right up to the boats on Small World.

Inside Small World at the end. These are giant post cards!

Lastly, we had some snacks (Pineapple Dole Whip from Adventureland and a Garlic Cheddar Bagel Twist from Fantasy Faire, which we shared with the ducks because that is my favorite part about Disneyland) and we headed back to the car-- just as most of the guests were arriving for the day! I love it when we can avoid the mobs of people and just relax during our park trip.

We're actually staying in Glendale at a really nice Hilton. When we got here, they upgraded our room because Patrick is a Diamond Member! Our suite has a full living room, dining table, wet bar (no alcohol, but there is a sink for coffee and such), and also a 1/2 bath. The closed off master bedroom has a full bathroom attached, complete with not only a stand up shower but also a separate bath tub for soaking and a toilet room (so a person could do their business in privacy while another person gets ready or showers). We checked in and I took a nap while Patrick went to the store. Later, we headed downstairs for a bite to eat.

Are you ready for the most bummer part of the day? If any of you know me at all, you will know that my inner nine year old is still desperately in love with Aaron Carter, who is making a comeback as an artist. I had the pleasure and honor of seeing him at one of his very first comeback shows two years ago (almost to the day-- I saw him on 3/21/13) in Ferndale, MI at The Magic Bag. Sick as a dog and alone because no one would go with me, I drove to Ferndale by myself and bought a ticket & Meet-N-Greet pass to see him. I got to meet the very first love of my life and see him perform for the third time! I suffered through a headache the entire show, my feet were killing me from the stupid boots I was wearing because I am in no way accustomed to high heels, I was partially deaf in my left ear because of the ear infection/cold that I had, I cried like a little girl from excitement, and my phone died fifteen minutes into the show. It was the best experience of my life and I will never forget a second of it.

Meet-N-Greet with the one and only King Carter, March 21, 2012.

I haven't gone to any of the shows in the Bay Area for personal reasons-- specifically, I know someone who will go to every single Bay Area show that I never want to meet in real life, so that is definitely me being a chicken and 100% completely my fault.

He plays shows in the Anaheim/LA area (I know that he has played two HOB shows in Downtown Disney in the past), and I know that he has an upcoming show featuring Drake Bell this weekend, which I will be unable to attend. So all week leading up to this trip, I kept expressing my hopes to Patrick that he would be in the park this week and maybe I would get to run into him.

We left the park around 12-1pm , and after all day of stalking the Disneyland Celebrity Sighting Instagram account that I follow, Aaron Carter was no where to be found-- but Chris Rock was there while we were leaving, it's too bad we missed him!

Imagine my shock and dismay when I looked on Instagram later that night and found that he is in DTD (along with Drake Bell, although I'm not sure if they're hanging out together) and that they are playing another show at the HOB-- a show that I probably could have made it to had I known about it in advance.

To say that I am bummed out is a complete understatement. Devastated isn't even a strong enough word.

Some day we will meet again, Aaron Carter. I will not give up hope.

Altogether we had a really great day. Winter/early spring days in Disneyland are a gift because they are so much less busy (bonus points if it rains!) and they really give a person a chance to relax and enjoy the park without battling the crowds. I hope it's like that again on Saturday when we get to go again! I'll update you all later on how it goes :)